Dear Ratan:
They are more likely to allow the SOS to certify the election, allow the recounts to continue, and have Gore use the totals in the contest phase of the election so that if, Gore can not convince the courts of the validity of his position or the recounts are not finished with enough votes to make Gore the winner, everything terminates on Dec. 11 so that, by the Dec. 12, Florida's electors, and thereby the 6 million voters who voted correctly, are not disenfranchised by the process. All that is lost by Gore is that the standard of contesting the results becomes higher (as it would have in any previous election (IMHO, this is how Gore should have proceeded without the political posturing and spin requirements)) and the face saving of not having lost the election without going to court (which he did anyway).
Perhaps the silver lining in this whole mess is that PCBs will no longer be allowed (should have been done away with a long time ago (ditto for voting machines)), polls will be closed at a uniform time (by agreement with all the other states), and a non partisan system will be setup, so that this mess can never happen again (even with a razor thin election in one or more states (even an outright tie). Perhaps it will be a simple as the rules for the Big Ten Rose Bowl Tiebreakers (if the election is within the margin of error (tightly defined (say 0.1% of voters)), the non incumbent wins, or if both are not incumbent, the party not in power the longest is chosen). This might stop even the need to go to court unless something really rotten happens (blantant vote fraud or gross negligence).
Pete |
